Portable internet helps Asia scam centres bypass blackouts

Fears grow that Musk’s Starlink and peers may re-enable predatory gangs, writes Rebecca L Root

- Rebecca L Root

In February, Thai and Myanmar authorities worked together to turn off electricity and the internet in an unprecedented operation to free thousands of trafficking victims forced to work in cyber-scam centres in Myanmar.

It succeeded, and some 7,000 people from 29 countries were released.

But trafficking experts question how significant the blackouts were, and will be, if satellite internet technology such as Starlink, China’s SpaceSail or the French-German Eutelsat becomes abundant in the region.

Owned by tech billionaire Elon Musk’s Space X, Starlink provides high-speed internet via portable packs.

Registered Starlink users simply plug in the device, which is slim enough to carry in a backpack, and point it towards the sky to access a stable internet connection. Service plans begin at £50 (2,223 baht) per month.

"We're starting to see Starlink signals pop up more and more in the areas where these compounds are," said Andrew Wasuwongse, country director of International Justice Mission Thailand, an anti-trafficking non-profit organisation.

More than 80 Starlink devices were seized by authorities in Myanmar and Thailand last year, according to the United Nations Office on Drugs and Crime.

Countries have differing restrictions on the devices that make their legality ambiguous. In Thailand and Myanmar, they are considered illegal and not licensed by authorities.

Starlink states on its website that users cannot engage its services for "fraudulent or illegal" activities. It did not reply to a request for comment.

Aware of the devices’ use in propping up illegal operations, Thai authorities attempt to seize them, but an Asean trade agreement allowing goods to be imported into Thailand and taken into another Southeast Asian country without inspection makes it difficult.